NCL is better than this

We downloaded the app as soon as we booked our trip, really excited to start looking at our customized itinerary, reserving shows, restaurants, and excursions. So you can imagine our disappointment when we found that the app is rather useless until you’re actually on the ship. We did use the countdown timer and visited the app often for that but found that feature to be the only useful one in the days preceding our trip. What a wasted opportunity, Norwegian. Imagine the ads and offers you could have sent us leveraging our pre-cruise excitement. Oh well. :-)

One interesting behavior I noticed days before our sailing was a message from the app that we were “connected to the ships wifi” whenever I connected to my home network and a message that we were “disconnected from the ships wifi” when leaving our house. Is it really that hard for the app to determine when it’s actually connected to the ship’s wifi as opposed to any old wifi?

The real disappointment however, came once we boarded. Texting and calling for $7.95 per device is a non-starter after spending thousands for a cruise. Come on Norwegian. At least give us texting through the app for free. Oh, and while you’re at it, make texting really work without having the app open all the time. In addition to texting, we could have used deck plans. I expected the app to know which boat I was on and provide deck plans but even a dropdown menu of ships in the NCL fleet would have helped. Seems like a no-brainer to me in this high tech world but we had to make do with printed deck plans that I carried along with my phone.

I had other issues with features and app crashes from time to time. Before the second day of our 7 day cruise, I stopped using the app entirely and probably won’t pick it up again unless a major update is delivered. I have left it installed, however. It makes me smile every time the banner message tells me that I’m connected to the ships wifi while comfortably seated in my living room. :-)

steir about Norwegian iConcierge